Duty at Somerset Crafts

Today my Wife Sue and are have been doing our Stewarding at Somerset crafts Somerset Crafts .
Somerset Crafts was started two and a half years ago on the Somerset levels by a handful of local craftspeople and now we have 19 members selling everything from Jewelry to Pottery and much more.Everything has to be hand made and come from Somerset.
Susan and I steward for two Sundays every month as part of our duty.
Here are some pics I took today to give you an idea of what it is like.

Walnut Bowl

I have never done a lot of thin walled turning but recently I visited Mark Sanger's workshop and we had a bit of a play turning thin walled bowls.
I found it quite challenging and good tool control is obviously the key.
I have just bought quite a lot of very wet figured Walnut so I thought this would be good opportunity to try some thin walled turning.
This bowl is 8"x 2 1/2" and about 1/8" thick.
I turned it the same thickness all around Even removing the foot.It has dried and warped now for about four days and seems quite stable.
The base is scorched and oiled Oak.

Coloured Hollow form

This piece is 9" x 5 1/4" turned from Ash and coloured with acrylic paint.

Leaving comments

Unfortunately I have had to restrict leaving comments on my Blog to registered users only.
I have got what I believe is a troll trying to leave anonymous comments.
This is a pity because I have had some very good anonymous comments in the past and I was very loath to restrict comments as I am always interested in people views and opinions.

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Theo's first bowl

Today I have been teaching Theo how to turn his first bowl.
This bowl is about 11" x 6" turned from Olive Ash.
here are a few pics for you .

Mervin's day.

Mervin is a novice turner who has just bought his first lathe.
He has been with me today for a days tuition on bowl turning and I think he has done really well.
Mervin has turned a deep bowl from Sycamore about 12" x 5".
It is never easy to turn a deep bowl as a first project and it is certainly chucking him in at the deep end but he coped really well.
He must have enjoyed his day as he is comming back next week.
Here are a few pics for you.

Turning of the week once again

Once again I have been privileged to have one of my pieces chosen as turning of the week on the American Turners unlimited site.Link here link here.
I am absolutely stunned that out of all the beautiful work on the site mine was chosen.
The previous post on here was a brief tutorial to show how I made and coloured a similar piece.